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. 2023 Jun:9:e2200406.
doi: 10.1200/GO.22.00406.

Status of Government-Funded Radiotherapy Services in Nigeria

Simeon C Aruah  1   2 , Runcie C W Chidebe  3   4   5 , Tochukwu C Orjiakor  3   6 , Fatima Uba  7 , Uchechukwu N Shagaya  1 , Charles Ugwanyi  8 , Aisha A Umar  9 , Taofeeq Ige  10 , Obinna C Asogwa  10   11 , Oiza T Ahmadu  12 , Musa Ali-Gombe  13   14 , Alabi Adewumi  15 , Vitalis C Okwor  16 , Jimoh A Mutiu  17 , Basheer Bello  18 , Lucy O Eriba  19 , Yusuf A Ahmed  20   21 , Awwal Bisalla  21 , Ukamaka Itanyi  22 , Ramatallah A Balogun  23 , Suleiman Alabi  7 , David Pistenmaa  24 , C Norman Coleman  24 , Dosanjh Manjit  25   26
Affiliations

Status of Government-Funded Radiotherapy Services in Nigeria

Simeon C Aruah et al. JCO Glob Oncol. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: Access to radiotherapy (RT) is now one of the stark examples of global cancer inequities. More than 800,000 new cancer cases require potentially curative or palliative RT services in Africa, arguably <15% of these patients currently have access to this important service. For a population of more than 206 million, Nigeria requires a minimum of 280 RT machines for the increasing number of cancer cases. Painfully, the country has only eight Government-funded RT machines. This study aimed to evaluate the status of the eight Government-funded RT services in Nigeria and their ability to deliver effective RT to their patients.

Methods: A survey addressing 10 critical areas was used to assess the eight Government-funded RT services in Nigeria.

Results: Unfortunately, six of the eight centers (75%) surveyed have not treated patients with RT because they do not have functioning teletherapy machines in 2021. Only two RT centers have the capability of treating patients using advanced RT techniques. There is no positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan in any of the Government-funded RT centers. The workforce capacity and infrastructure across the eight centers are limited. All of the centers lack residency training programs for medical physicists and radiation therapy technologists resulting in very few well-trained staff.

Conclusion: As the Nigerian Government plans for the new National Cancer Control Plan, there is an urgent need to scale up access to RT by upgrading the RT equipment, workforce, and infrastructure to meet the current needs of Nigerian patients with cancer. Although the shortfall is apparent from a variety of RT-capacity databases, this detailed analysis provides essential information for an implementation plan involving solutions from within Nigeria and with global partners.

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Conflict of interest statement

The following represents disclosure information provided by authors of this manuscript. All relationships are considered compensated unless otherwise noted. Relationships are self-held unless noted. I = Immediate Family Member, Inst = My Institution. Relationships may not relate to the subject matter of this manuscript. For more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to www.asco.org/rwc or ascopubs.org/go/authors/author-center.

Open Payments is a public database containing information reported by companies about payments made to US-licensed physicians (Open Payments).

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Map showing the location of the Government-funded radiotherapy centers located in all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. EBT, External Beam Therapy; INT, Intracavitary Brachytherapy for Gynaecological Cancers; LINACS, linear accelerators
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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